Rachel Stone:
Louise Martinez and her business partner, Melissa Wiggans, run the Good Life Concierge & Lifestyle Management, a service that caters to some 44,000 Mexican nationals who have homes in San Antonio, according to market research firm EG&A Direct International Inc.
The Good Life will do just about anything they need. The women hire caterers, landscapers and housekeepers. They’ve planned family get-togethers and lavish dinner parties, arranged for tickets to Spurs games and The Lion King, decorated freshly cut Christmas trees and stocked refrigerators with milk, cheese and juice.
The women often shop for their clients at Crate & Barrel, a retailer their Mexican clients often prefer, and decorate homes in the crisp contemporary style they love. ‘This for them is like Mecca because they love the (country club),’ Martinez said, waiting for a security guard to buzz her through the gate at a Sonterra subdivision.
In Mexico, financial prosperity can be dangerous, she said. Her clients often are wary of money-hungry kidnappers. But behind the gates and guards of San Antonio neighborhoods such as the Dominion and the Heights at Stone Oak, they’re more at ease. ‘Their kids can walk to the club and play tennis or swim,’ she said. ‘It’s freedom.’
The service charges a 1-time membership fee of $50 and $75 a month to look after homes. That includes things like regulating sprinkler systems when the city enforces water restrictions so that homeowners don’t incur fines, shopping, delivering packages and arranging for housekeeping and lawn care.
If they have to wait for cable installation or do something extra like plan a party, they charge $49 an hour. Concierge services traditionally are connected to hotels or corporate office buildings. The past decade or so has given rise to more personal concierge services that run errands for busy professionals, for a fee.
Other personal concierge services in San Antonio include Victoria’s Concierge Services, Concierge Du Jour and Navalino’s Personal Service. The Good Life’s market niche came with the women’s professional connection to Mexico and South America.
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